Prior art blades used in conjunction with vibratory cutters utilize a cutting surface having a plurality of teeth which are angled in one direction with respect to a workpiece which is to be cut. These teeth usually have a set angle between two adjacent teeth to facilitate the cutting action when the blade vibrates in one direction, as well as providing a raking action to dispose of pulverized material when the blade vibrates in a second direction, thereby freeing the blade teeth of waste accumulation. Therefore, when vibrated, a cutting action takes place when the blade moves in one direction, and no cutting action takes place during the raking action, when the blade moves in the opposite direction. Consequently, prior art vibratory cutting blades only produce a cutting action for only one-half of the entire cutting cycle and, additionally, due to the set angle between two adjacent teeth, an extremely precise cut is not possible. These types of blades actually cut only one half of the line. Therefore, a vibrating blade which can cut in both of these vibratory directions would be quite advantageous.
A number of patents have issued which describe cutting blades having all of the teeth angled in one direction on one side of the blade, and angled in the opposite direction on the other side of the blade. Typical of these prior art cutting blades are U.S. Pat. No. 141,939 issued to Luppert et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,050 issued to Salzwedel. Additionally, other patents of note include German Pat. No. 112078 (Aug. 6, 1900), German Pat. No. 189394 (Oct. 12, 1907), British Pat. No. 1703 (Jan. 25, 1893) and French Pat. No. 358429.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,050 issued to Salzwedel describes a reversible hacksaw blade which contains a plurality of teeth 2 angled in one direction on one side of the blade, and a plurality of teeth 2' oppositely angled to the first group of teeth provided on a second portion of the blade. The purpose of this particular configuration is to provide a reversibly mounted blade which would extend the life of the blade.
British Pat. No. 1703 describes a blade used in a band saw which contains teeth for cutting in one direction on one portion of the blade, and teeth angled in a second direction in another part of the blade so that the saw mill cut during both the up and down stroke of the machine.
Similarly, all of the above-cited references either relate to hacksaw or band saw blades and cannot be applied to the blade used for a vibratory cutter described herein.